Instructor:
ME361
Mechanical Engineering Department
The University of Wisconsin – Madison
Thermodynamics
Scott T. Sanders
Fall 2008
109 Engineering Research Building
Office Phone: 262-3540
Office Hours*: MWF 9:15 – 10:15 AM (we may move these to a computer lab later)
Appointments at other times are welcomed
You can also try to just drop in (however you should be aware that this generally does not work out well because I am busy with other meetings or with research tasks)
Email: ssanders@engr.wisc.edu
*note that I usually respond to emails quickly, typically within 10 minutes. If you have a quick question, send me an email.
TA: Kyle Pohlkamp
ME B1188 (see also lab: B1153)
MW 10am-2pm
F (usually but not always) 10am-2pm
Email: pohlkamp@wisc.edu
Tutoring: 6:30-9 PM on Monday and Tuesday nights on the 4th floor of Wendt library
(rumor has it the tutor is good at EES)
Textbook: Thermodynamics: An Engineering Approach
Yunus A. Cengel and Michael A. Boles
6 th Edition, McGraw Hill
Bundled with ARIS – online problems resource
ISBN:
Course homepage:
0073505641 http://homepages.cae.wisc.edu/~ssanders/me_361/
Objectives: 1. Develop an initial understanding of the 1 st and 2 nd laws of thermodynamics
2.
3.
Apply these laws and appropriate assumptions to solve simple but practical problems
Develop problem-solving skills, particularly skills that will be useful for all energyrelated problems. Develop competence in using the computer to solve engineering problems.
4. Use these skills and tools to study important applications in more depth. Applications may include:
(i) Mobility / transportation
(ii) Climate control
(iii) Electrical power generation
(iv) Environmental and societal problems related to energy
Homework late policy: All homework done in hardcopy format must be turned in within the first 60 seconds of the start of class (students will make a pile at the front of the classroom before class starts).
Once this minute is up, homework will no longer be accepted (if you are late to class, even if you have an excellent excuse like you just finished an exam in another class or had a family emergency, your homework will not be accepted). Alternatively, you can turn homework assignments in well before class starts by placing them in the folder hanging outside Prof. Sanders’ office door.
Homework will be collected from the folder up until 15 minutes before the start of class. Homework turned in to another location (in a mailbox, under a door, by email etc.) is not likely to be accepted.
Homework solutions will be posted just as class begins and in many cases, reviewed in class. If you want to have a copy of your own

homework in-hand for the in-class review, prepare a photocopy. Prof. Sanders can assist you with this if you need help making a photocopy.
Working the homework assignments: You are encouraged to discuss homework assignments with your classmates, and to get help from the TA, the tutor, and myself. However, homeworks are not group projects*. Work it on your own and turn in your own work. Please start the homework early and get help when you get stuck to avoid wasting a lot of time on homework.
*Faculty Senate Rule 49-20 states, in part “Academic integrity is the pursuit of scholarly activity free from fraud and deception and is an educational objective of this institution.” Faculty are required to clarify the application of this rule to each course: You are encouraged to study together and to discuss the homework assignments, but the work you submit must be your own. Acts of academic dishonesty will result in either a grade of zero for an assignment, or an F for the course.
EES and homework: You will be required to use EES for many homework assignments. Engineering
Equation Solver (EES) software can be downloaded from an on-campus computer by navigating to http://ees.cae.wisc.edu/
EES workshops are provided. See http://homepages.cae.wisc.edu/~ssanders/me_361/EES_workshops/ for details.
Homework grading: To compensate for the strict homework late policy, I will drop your 4 lowest homework scores . I strongly advise you to save these until the end of the course in case unexpected family emergencies, etc. arise. Then, toward the end of the course, even if you have aced all the homeworks when only 4 are left, I still encourage you to put in a full effort on these remaining 4 (even though these 4 homework scores will not impact your final grade). After all, a big reason for doing the homework is to practice the material and prepare for the exams which have a significant impact on your final grade.
Hourly exams: There will be three hourly exams in addition to the final examination. Exams will be held in the evenings, with plenty of time given for you to work them. Exams are closed book and closed notes.
You may use a calculator but it cannot contain illegal information such as notes, worked problems, information from the book, etc. I will provide an equation sheet with all of the equations you should need to solve the exam problems. I will also provide property information (including any necessary charts) if needed on the exam. If you cannot make the scheduled exam period you must arrange an earlier time to take it.
Course grade: A simple numeric scheme will be used to determine your final grade in this class. It is calculated in Microsoft Excel without any subjective input.
The following weighting will be used:
Homework 40%
Hourly Exams
Final
40% Total (13.333% each)
20%
Your grade will be determined by your overall score, following a scheme that is at least this lenient:
A greater than or equal to 92/100
AB less than 92/100, greater than or equal to 87/100
B less than 87/100, greater than or equal to 82/100
BC less than 82/100, greater than 77/100
C less than 77/100, greater than 72/100
D less than 72/100, greater than 62/100
F less than 62/100
The ‘curve’ in this course is set by these numeric cutoffs. Factors such as the difficulty of the exams ultimately cause variations in the numeric cutoffs from semester to semester. Some data illustrating how wide the variations can be are given below: grade max cutoff (from scheme above) cutoff fall 07

A
AB
B
BC
C
92
87
82
77
72
78
70
66
60
52
D
The typical overall course GPA is 2.7-2.9.
62 46
What do I expect of you?
1. Come to class ( I do not consider it my responsibility if you miss class so it is generally unacceptable to come to office hours and ask for a quick review of class since you missed)
2. Come to class prepared and ready to discuss the material.
3. Do the homework on time.
4. Demonstrate your understanding of the material by doing well on the tests.
5. Ask questions when you don’t understand.
6. Learn from your own work, from your classmates, and from me.
What can you expect from me?
1. I will be prepared for every class, and will do my best to assist you in learning thermodynamics. I am excited about introducing you to thermodynamics.
2. If you need assistance in learning the material, I am available to help you. Email is generally the most effective, with many emails answered within 10 minutes. You may also use my office hours, or arrange an alternative with me if the office hours do not work.
3. I will strive to evaluate your efforts as fairly as possible. I will be grading the exams and assignments according to a fair, all-numeric plan described in this document.
Exams will be based on the topics discussed in class and will follow the homework assignments.
Learning philosophies: I believe that learning is best accomplished when drawing on the benefit of your own experience. I will try to relate thermodynamics to ‘everyday’ things that we have experienced.
Substituting numbers into equations – I am confident that each of you can substitute values into equations to obtain an answer. This process can be valuable because you can learn, for example, about the magnitude of the potential energy of an elevator full of people. And certainly, at the end of most problems, you must substitute numbers into one or more equations to obtain a final answer. But beyond this, substituting numbers into equations should not be a major part of this course; it is a skill I expect you already have. In most cases, if your problem solving approach resembles ‘hunting through the book to find an equation in which to substitute numbers given in the problem’ you should let me know, because this approach is generally going to leave you ill-prepared for exams.
Symbolic approach to problems – I strongly encourage you to work all problems symbolically, then substitute numbers in only at the very end. Students tend to like to substitute numbers early; usually the motiviation seems to be a reminder of which parameters are known and which are unknown. I suggest instead boxing known parameters and circling unknown parameters.
Example problems – I encourage you to understand example problems. But since each problem is different, in most cases if your problem solving approach resembles ‘find a similar example problem and make it work for the homework problem I am now trying to solve’ you should let me know, because this approach is generally going to leave you ill-prepared for exams.
I am looking forward to studying thermodynamics with you this semester,
Scott